[Technical Field]
The present invention relates to an apparatus that recognizes a lane dividing line (lane markings) such as a white line on a road, based on images from an on-board camera for driving assistance and the like of a vehicle, and a program thereof.
[Related Art]
An apparatus is proposed that recognizes a lane dividing line (lane markings) such as a white line on a road from images captured by an on-board camera and performs driving assistance and the like of a vehicle, based on the recognized lane dividing line on the road. In an apparatus such as this, appropriate recognition of the lane dividing line on the road even in a tunnel is desired.
In a vehicle lane line detection apparatus described in JP-A-H11-075702, to detect a lane dividing line for vehicles from acquired road images both inside a tunnel and outside the tunnel where brightness differs, images having high exposure are used inside the tunnel and images having low exposure are used outside the tunnel.
In general, a white line (lane dividing line) inside a tunnel tends to darken as a result of exhaust gas. When the white line darkens and becomes blurred, fluorescent portions of pole-shaped cones or the like located along the white line tend to be erroneously recognized as the white line. When the fluorescent portions of the pole-shaped cones or the like are erroneously recognized as the white line, vehicle control is performed based on the apparent positions of the fluorescent portions of the pole-shaped cones or the like.
Therefore, for example, when lane keeping control is performed, steering is aimed towards a target that is shifted from the intended steering target, and passengers may experience discomfort. Such issues are not solved even by the detection apparatus described in JP-A-H11-175702.
The above-described issue is not limited to the inside of a tunnel. The white line may become blurred even outside of a tunnel, and the above-described issue arises when the white line becomes blurred, regardless of whether the white line is inside or outside of a tunnel.